It’s a scenario that's not at all useful in the real world, but the theoretical debate rages on. In this situation, picture an airplane - the type is irrelevant - on a gigantic treadmill. The treadmill spools up its belt and the airplane powers up its engine(s),...

If you have a flight simulator, I have a challenge for you. Over on the Clayviation YouTube channel, we’ve just finished up a series entitled “Bucket List Flights: Flying To Oshkosh.” Over the course of five flight legs, we have used X-Plane 11 to travel...

For a pilot in training, adding a home simulator setup is an easy and cost effective way to study and practice various aspects of aviation. With technology where it is today, it doesn't take investing a fortune to get up and running with a sim. ...

“Let go of the controls and see what happens.” For an eager student pilot looking to learn to control the airplane, most of the tasks of even basic airplane control seem like hard work. There’s so much to think about, and constant corrections and control...

I recently created a poll for a group of flight simmers who use X-Plane 11 (my simulator of choice and currently the latest version of X-Plane). I asked them to choose a statement that best describes the reason they use X-Plane. I received 320 responses to...

"I've always wanted to learn to fly." I find myself talking to a lot of people who tell me that. It's a dream many people have, and a privilege to be among the (relatively) few to have achieved that dream. The FAA tells us that there are currently just...

In the world of flight simming, there are two main approaches that I've seen people take. There is the gaming side, which encompasses the enjoyment of flying various airplanes, along with online multiplayer sessions and virtual airlines, just to scratch...

Pilots love to fly places, and in the spirit of the hundred dollar hamburger, the location usually doesn't matter. Any excuse to immerse yourself into the flying culture for a time will often do. The smell of AvGas, the sound of the engine roaring to life,...

When I was a student pilot on my first solo flight, the biggest comfort I found amongst the butterflies of being alone in an airplane was to talk myself through everything - out loud. It gave me a sense of normality, but there is also something very...

One of my first flights was at night. I was a passenger in a Cessna 172 on a hop up to Chattanooga. The pilot was my friend and future instructor. I was still a little uneasy about flying - something that a few hours of flight training helped to take away....

It's a common practice for a checkride examiner to try to distract the pilot applicant. Ah yes, the old "drop the pen" trick. Here's how it goes. You're a student pilot taking your checkride to become a certificated pilot. In the right seat, your examiner...

If I were, for some reason, unable to ever fly again, I'd still have the simulator. It may not be not the real thing, but it's a passion and an experience in itself. And I guess I could still go for a hundred dollar hamburger. I'd load up thr...

I usually love to read manuals, but not GPS manuals. I find them to be a better reference after you figure out some of the basics rather than a guide to learn the GPS from scratch. Sometimes I look for quick reference guides and I end up...

You’ve just finished washing your hands as you step over and wave them in front of the paper towel dispenser. It remains motionless. You wave again, but nothing happens. Maybe tap on it? That didn't work. Ok, now you step back, walk forward again and try different...

"Hey Siri, set a timer for 14 minutes." Out of all the high tech stuff that can be done today, I'm always the most amused that when I put my eggs on to boil every morning, I can speak that statement out loud and then my phone, which is across the room, responds with,...

Nowadays, I drink my coffee without any sugar in it. A little cream and I'm good to go. That wasn't always the case, though. I'm not sure the age that most folks start drinking coffee, but I remember a coffee experience as far back as 7th grade. I was on a mission...

I'm happy to say that I've never landed with my gear up. Of course that's not surprising considering that that I've only flown fixed gear aircraft up to this point. The closest I've been was a simulated experience. After completing the oral portion of a flight review...

I remember being told that the airplane was equipped with a 28 volt, direct current, alternator driven electrical system. "Is that good?" I thought, as a student pilot without a background in mechanical stuff. It could have been a 1.21 gigawatts electrical system and...

I'm not certain what peaked my interest in gliders, but I'm thinking it was a flight simulator. I'm fascinated by the simplicity of it. Not that it's easy. Or simple, actually. Being a great glider pilot takes a lot of work. But the systems in the glider are very...

I've never stood on the wing of an airplane mid-flight. I guess it's nothing I've ever considered. If I ever found myself in that situation, though, I'd likely want to have a very competent pilot at the controls. So I certainly haven't ever pondered standing on the...

I had just dropped my wife off at the Cherokee County Airport (KCNI), north of Atlanta, on our way back from Tennessee. We had flown to Nashville for an overnight trip to surprise her mom for her birthday (read the blog here). Having been at a conference in Atlanta,...

When we fly, our hope is that everything goes smoothly. We take care to build in redundancies and check and double check as much as possible. When things do go wrong, however, the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) teaches us about a couple of different radio...

We called it the south practice area. Flying over open fields and farmland in Georgia's lake country was a good place to practice. There are plenty of emergency landing fields, few populated areas and little terrain. It's quiet airspace, too. I'll never forget my...

The cockpit is an expensive classroom. When it comes to flying, the more you can do on the ground, the better. Studying, whether books, videos or a classroom setting, is certainly a necessary component of ground time, but what else can be done to utilize your time on...

Basic chair flying can be done anywhere. You could be actually sitting in a chair, if you like it literal, reading through a checklist and visualizing the steps. Or maybe you walk around outside with a chalk runway on the ground, checklist in hand, talking through...

In my house, there are not many requests as wholesome as "dad, can I play flight simulator?" A request for a second helping of vegetables might compete, but as a lifelong avgeek, X-Plane is screen time for my 8 year old, Reid, that I can get behind. I recently...

My first experience with a flight simulator was as a kid. It was Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, sometime in the early 90's. At the time, I was in awe of my big brother's friend who had the computer and joystick. That experience with a flight simulator as a...

Understanding an airport's traffic pattern is fundamental to aircraft pilots and remote pilots (drone operators) alike. As more and more authorizations for drones to operate near airports are issued, remote pilots are encouraged to monitor the radio traffic with a...

There are a few critical things that every pilot needs to fly. You might be thinking those things are money, fuel, and airspeed, often in that order. True, but today we're talking about two documents that every pilot must have with them to fly; their pilot...

I like to think of myself as a "defensive driver." When I get to a four way stop, and I stop, I don't just glance around and go again. What if someone coming from another direction fails to stop? That means I'm getting hit. Sure, it's not my fault, but who cares about...

An alarm was blaring. It was loud and unfamiliar. My drone was well out over the lake, a couple hundred feet high. I was standing on the shore, trying to make an immediate assessment of what was going on. I'm used to hearing a low battery warning. I have the...

If you've been flying for much time at all, you've probably noticed that a significant portion of flight training is dedicated to handling deviations from the norm (or the "abnorm" as I have coined it). A classic example is when your instructor pulls the throttle out...

Some of the concepts that we have to grasp in aviation are fairly straightforward. If you nose the plane over towards the ground, you tend to speed up. Wind blows you sideways, so you have to correct for that drift by adjusting your heading into the wind. These...

What time is it right now? Look at your watch or your phone. Your answer will likely differ from mine and others, even if we are all checking at the same moment in time. Think about the strike of midnight on New Years Eve, marking the turn of the new year. Everyone in...

When flying to another airport for a hundred dollar hamburger, a big part of the tradition is simply finding an excuse to fly somewhere. But that doesn't mean that the culinary experience that you have at the destination airport isn't significant. After all, food is a...

It's not hard to convince anyone that flying is an incredible way to travel. It's faster and often more convenient than other modes of transportation. It's the times when things go wrong that people fear the most. As a pilot, I'm not immune to that fear. Even as a...

"Alright, you can go with us, but we'll have to go with half full tanks." The amount of seats in an airplane can be deceiving. I fly a Cessna 172, which has four seats, but carrying four people is rarely a reality. To know what I can carry, I have to run some weight...

Sometimes, movies that depict the future end up getting it right. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to wait and see. In the movie Back To The Future, the famous DeLorean blasts into the future and lands on October 21, 2015. For a 1985 movie, that's 30...

We know that what goes up must come down, but when I was in flight training, I always had a hard time determining exactly when to come down. I'd tend to begin my descent to an airport too late, when it was in clear view, leaving me with a more rapid descent than...

As the Clayviation community grows, I like to find ways to get involved with other organizations and be a part of positive growth in the aviation community. A group of aviation bloggers is assembling around a friend of Clayviation called Hangaround. This...

Any time I run through my checklists and get to the "Passenger Briefing" line, I can't help but think back to a scene from the movie Tommy Boy. David Spade and Chris Farley are posing as flight attendants and get stuck with the passenger briefing. "Exits! Ok there's...

Have you ever stopped to think about why we blow out the candles on our birthday? How about carrying the bride over the threshold or eating turkey on Thanksgiving? While they all likely have a logical origin, these sorts of things are often continued today simply...

The ding of the email hitting my inbox brought with it an exciting headline. "Hey, you wanna buy a plane?" It was from a friend of mine who is looking to become a Private Pilot. He heard about a couple of people in the area looking to buy an airplane together. I...

"Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect." — Captain A. G. Lamplugh In the world of aviation, people tend to worry about failures. After all, when...

"Ah yes, those were the days. A simpler time, when things were just...better." When exactly were the glory days of aviation? Some might say it was the "Golden Age of Aviation" - the time between the two world wars. It was a time of innovation, adventurous pilots and...

It was the kind of day where you look up and think, "I should be flying right now." Clear skies, good visibility and very light winds prevailed on a mid-sixty degree day in November of 2004. I stood by the airplane in Athens, Georgia, as a student pilot, but ready...

It's been said that getting your Private Pilot Certificate is a "license to learn." It's true that you should continue to learn from every flight you take; no pilot ever knows it all. And while enjoying and exploring the privileges of a Private Pilot is fun on its...

"How many hours do you have?" One of the biggest factors that makes up a pilot's experience level is the number of flight hours they have. It's not quite like a business, who might be judged by how many years they've been in business. After a flight, recording an hour...

"You need to have a license to fly that drone?" If I had a nickel for every time I was asked that - well, let's not be dramatic, I could buy a Coke or something. When I have my drone out at various gigs, kids come up and talk to me about the drone they have at home....

When I took the check ride for my Private Pilot certificate, I sat in a conference room at a little airport in South Carolina with the FAA examiner. Before getting in the plane for my flight test, I had to pass an oral exam. For about an hour, he got to pick my brain...